Hi.

Jun 3 Revenge of the Sick

Nick was sick, all night. I finally put a trashcan next to him so he didn't risk running to the sink and tripping over an unsuspecting animal. We think the rice from dinner plus many cups of water did him in, so it'll be another easy day. Good thing we don't have far to go and didn't have any sightseeing planned. Unfortunately, what we thought was only a 15 mile ride is about 26 miles, as we are in the northeastern part of Sac and our next host is in the west side of Davis.

Getting out of Sacramento was all bike paths until it unceremoniously dumped us onto the wooden and then cobbled streets of Old Sacramento. A balm to our upset bellies….not so much. It was over soon enough and we found ourselves cruising through West Sac, where Nick had the brilliant idea of stopping for popsicles. I got him a Gatorade and made him toast early, but neither of us had much this morning, and the cold felt amazing on our throats.

Sweet treats finished, and our bellies, if not improved, at least not worse, we got to a bike path paralleling I-80. The wind was high as we pushed over the Yolo County Marshes, so I rode in front for Nick to draft and take advantage of maybe the only physics trick I know. While not quiet, it was satisfying to bike the path of the highway with a measure of safety. As the bridge ended and trees sprang up between us and the railroad tracks, today's brave hero requested a pause to rest in the shade again. He was incredibly obliging when I needed it several days ago, so with six miles remaining, we sat down for a nap.

It was cool under the trees, but we had a destination to reach, and we were nearly at the end of the bike trail, and our bike riding in California! As we arrived in Davis, the number of bicycles kept increasing exponentially until we hit UC Davis. Maximum saturation. Holy smokes! Neither of us had ever seen so many bikes in one place. Not that I would've wanted to go to school out west, but that was really impressive. Nick found them very confusing to navigate. We availed ourselves of the local pharmacy for more Gatorade and some applesauce for Nick and our third refill of sunscreen. That applesauce worked wonders! All the sudden, Nick was a person again! Okay, two miles to go, and we were on simpler paths.

We turned off the path and into some bee gardens, then onto a street. Then all the sudden, we were there! We didn't even need the gps to tell us, we just knew. Well, there were a few hints. Like the rainbow striped Model A Ford with “whmcycle” plates. Or the bikes, well, everywhere. Where to look, where to look.

We will stay with Peter and Jeri tonight, their two children, Sam and Lilly, and another gentleman catching a ride to the race. Peter took us through to the back to see his sculpture for The Race. There were also machines from previous years’ races, the Bouncers, which are step aboard machines with wide racing tires that don't require pedal power to locomote. There was a pedal powered motorcycle. Not a moped, mind you.

And there were birds! 6 chickens, a duck and a baby girl who has been sitting on my shoulder more or less all night. She's very curious of my wooden earrings and also tried to investigate my nose rings. Silly dinosaur. But seriously there are bicycles and bike corpses and ongoing projects everywhere. Now we understand the meaning of whymcycles.

Nick helped Peter pack sculpture pieces on top of one vehicle while I behaved as a human jungle gym for one of the children. I imagined the sculptures would be much larger, I guess. We will be convoying in two vehicles tomorrow morning up to Clear Lake before we board the infamous bus. But for now, I'm making bulk eggplant parmesan, and we are going to pass out early on a real mattress! Well, Nick's going to sleep extra early so we can wake him at 7am. I'm going to go patch up my shorts because neither pair that I brought is fairing well.